Boomers vs. Millennials

Did you know: 75% of the workforce will be made up of millennials by the year 2025? That statistic is shocking, yet inspiring (…for some of us…).

I recently spoke with someone who attended a conference and was explaining the importance of knowing your audience. Since it was a leadership conference, the speaker was in a room jammed packed with the baby-boomer generation; yet, she was going on and on about how millennials are rising to the top. Since the audience was 0% millennials, they weren’t too thrilled, or comfortable, with the message. But — she wasn’t saying this because she didn’t know her audience, she was saying it because she did. She wants to help the Boomer Generation understand that corporate culture may be changing, and that they need to learn to be more accepting of change to allow the diversity that millennials bring to the table to develop.

Millennials are just the ones beginning our careers; while baby-boomers own businesses, created mega-companies and for the most part, are our bosses. But, there are a lot of us (because there are a LOT of baby boomers, who had us as their babies), and we’re coming in HOT. So why is it that millennials are starting to irritate boomers at work?

We are so different, and because there are so many of us, things are a-changin’. Here are some Generational differences, found through research by West Midland Family Center, in Shepherd, MI.

Millennials:

Want Boomers to: Understand that we don’t like to do things “the way it’s always been done,” know the purpose and bigger picture of our work, let us live (sometimes we like to stay up late working, other times we want to be in the office at 7am – either way, we’ll get the job done).